Category: DIGC202

The continuous growth within devices and the use to be online all the time has changed personal interact between individuals. Our eyes are stuck to the screen of our smartphones, television screens or even computer screens. The amount of technology in which we use and interact with on a daily basic it will eventually store the information and data in which we are producing. Such information as simple searches, social networking connects to our name or even where we live to filter us through large amounts of advertisements.

(IOT) The Internet of Things is all about connecting us to various devices that have access to the internet allowing access to one another through multiple access points. An example being Microsoft search to define this in their devices. How Microsoft does this is through its two most popular software items, Windows 10 and Cortana.

Cortana is an A.I. for your Windows Phones, Computers and Console to filter out your interests along with help you in your everyday need. This also has shown that Cortana will remember your further searches or demands as she stores the information away to recap on for next time. Here is one of the examples that Cortana can connect with your internet of things.

The internet is a big and open world to create whatever you like and to do whatever an individual would like however a lot of people do not understand how powerful that can become. With the advancement of technology and continuous use of the internet people become so connected with their devices that it can be their biggest weaknesses when being targeted by cybercrime.

With Cybercrime it depends upon the target in which the individual is attacking them with and being that we are so used to using our devices like our wallets it now may contain all our passwords, card accounts, private information and more. This can go into further attacks on fraud and identity theft online.

People need to understand the use of the internet and how they use it in their everyday lives, even though a lot of negative can come out of a device that we use for so much personal use. It can be changed around. An Individual still has the freedom and accessibility to get the knowledge of the software they use to help themselves protect them or even one another.

Yet Cybercrimes are not always bad because there is always the chance the individual might be looking into further areas to help society or further organisations. E.g. ‘Anonymous’ from my last post.

Hackers are known as people who wondering around the dark side of the internet, lurking around each corner hoping to find your weak point to tear you apart in some way or form through online. Hacktivism is defined as,

However individuals rather believe that Hackers are the Killers not the victim yet they fight for the weak people in creating their own revolution. This is not in turn saying that they target grudges on organisations and higher companies. This is both their positive and negative approach they have on society.

An example is ‘Anonymous,’ a network of activists and hacktivists that have made their presence known over the years in various ways of events that are impacted through social networks and hacking into various programs.

The world has evolved from regularly buying your newspaper from outlets around the corner, turning on your radio or television to listen to the news because it has all moved online. All the old routines have been lost and absorbed into the internet, this can even be classified for how people now buy and look for their news.

Media has changed into mere conversations, opinions and mass broadcasting. As Roland Barthes states, ‘text is a tissue of quotations.’ The way we find our media has now been focused on looking at our social media networks such as Twitter or Facebook and other articles online. However the difference in this age is that more people have the ability to become the ‘Prosumers’ rather than just the ‘Consumers.’
An example being Reddit, it contains so many forums and bloggers that the instant they gather information it’s already posted online. This is the impact from ‘Gatewatchers’ that release short, early information that is distributed over and over again. This is the problem for journalists and reporters where they must fight for their work to be seen instead of publishing their work everywhere.

Axel Bruns: ‘Relies less on first hand investigative research and the ability to compose succinct news stories, and more on information search and retrieval skills especially in online environments.’

The key to understand the mass flow of information is that it becomes the ‘bridge of pebbles’ where you can trust the information. When seeing a large amount of content spark interests you would see so much information that backs up one after the other leading it to not be false, rumoured or even worthless.

Social Networks have created a way to connect everyone online that reach to other places around the world. It is a way to find people that are likeminded as yourself to push the ability to help one another, coordinate in finding something or someone for that matter at a rapid pace. It depends upon the action and the repetitive motion of acting out online to be dragged into real life is when a line can be crossed when enough is called for.

Arab Springs with Asmaa Mahfouz’s video action was to call all to come take action that combined two youth movements, Hyde Park and ThinkMoldova. They had continuously been protesting through social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter. The result brought a large number of people, estimated to be between hundreds to thousands to protest in Chisinau’s central square, Piața Marii Adunări Naționale. The protest unexpectedly turned violent with people throwing stones at the parliament building which was set on fire.

When on the other hand people use the use of connectedness to help themselves with struggles within their lives. Several cases where people had been attacked, their possessions stolen and even are in need of money for medical situations turn to the internet for help. An example, Oksana Makar, a young woman who was gang raped, burned alive and left for dead had survived and named her attackers. It was not till further action was given when her mother videotaped her in large amount of pain which caught attention to in prison the men for life.

If you go through the search bar and put down, ‘Apple vs Android’ there would be endless articles to read on why one is better than the other. There is never a clear decision to be made on which is preferred all over because it matters upon the individuals opinion.

On NSI Total IT Support I wanted to analyse the key positives and negatives to both these devices to narrow down to the software itself. There are two different models are open or closed.

An open model is a software in which allows Larger developer support, customizable, security and extended community support. This is targeted towards the Android software. The Android software itself gives you wide access to changing the font and format of how you want your phone to look while also creating a lot of barriers to keep you safe from viruses. Its extended community support can be further focused upon on either how much people contribute to the app store itself to connecting to further devices around your home. This statement further connects to larger developer support as other devices can than connect to your phone for greater usage. E.g. Samsung Watch.

A closed Model is something in which people classify to be simpler for its users as in same look and style without being able to customise. It is a unified experience in which is believed to gather more profit due to its narrowed down cut. This is targeted towards Apples software. A simple and easy software that is very popular and easy to use.

To conclude the war will never end between Android and Apple even for that of Apple and Windows because it depends upon the individual’s opinion. Would you prefer comfortability? Or Simplistic? However both are quite the same with just different Models.

Public spaces and programs that are developed on the internet have become feudalised due to the use of these ‘Walled Gardens.’ These ‘Walled Gardens’ are programs such as Facebook or Youtube that trigger people’s interests due to past searchers or keywords. These spaces have been closed off so that information keeps being filtered into the programs to constantly grow and be made into further data stored online. The Feudal Lords, owners of such programs and devices that watch over the user’s actions and the meta data they create makes profit flow into the Owners devices/programs.

A classic example of this would be the Owner of Microsoft, Bill Gates. Bill Gates has centred all his devices including computers, consoles and phones to only be accessible to windows apps and programs while given a major advantage to further installations. An example of this is Windows 10 being free for user’s with windows software computers. The more user’s establish themselves online that begin to become the pet that generates the work while the Lords stand back and watch over.